Westminster staffs Cold Weather Shelter the week of February 22

Week of Warmth is designed for congregations or other groups to sponsor our Cold Weather Shelter by supplying five volunteers a night to aid The Salvation Army’s Center of Hope in providing a warm place for homeless individuals and families to stay. Westminster will staff the Center of Hope the Week of February 22, 2009.

The Salvation Army will provide an hour long, on-site volunteer orientation for the members of the congregation that wish to participate.

The congregation will recruit five volunteers to serve each evening of the week from 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. with two of the five staying with us until 7:30 a.m. the following morning. This can be the same five people each evening or a different crew every night. Since experience is the best instructor, there is a great benefit to having volunteers that can work multiple evenings. Each evening at least three of the volunteers should have gone through the orientation or have participated previously.

The Salvation Army program coordinator will work directly with Westminster's Stephanie Keaney and Diane Campbell (299-3785 ext. 114), volunteer team captains, to schedule the orientation.

Since the Cold Weather Shelter is only open when the temperature is expected to get to 40 degrees or below, the Program Coordinator will be in communication with the team captain to let them know if the shelter is going to be closed.

Volunteer activities

5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
One volunteer will assist our staff member with welcoming and registering shelter participants. This will include receiving and identifying participant’s personal items for overnight storage.

Two volunteers (preferably one male and one female) will escort participants to and from the kitchen and the sleeping area.

Two volunteers will assist our staff member with feeding the participants and keeping the dining hall clean.

7:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m.
Two volunteers will remain with staff overnight to make sure that participants abide by the shelter rules and assist with registering any participants that might come in late. There will always be at least two staff members on duty all night long. Books and a TV will be available during the down time. These two volunteers will also assist in serving a continental breakfast to the participants as they leave.

The Center of Hope doors open for participants at 5:30 p.m. They are purposefully reaching out to compassionate churches and other organizations that will see these participants as more than just homeless and will join with them in our efforts to conquer homelessness. As an organization, the Salvation Army finds it very difficult to keep up with the financial demands of Cold Weather Shelter. Having friends like Westminster, makes it a lot easier to handle the emergency needs of our community.